Invisible Chess IX

Blindfold Chess Training: A Newcomer's Guide

realise that it sounds absurdly simple, but at the risk of sounding like an 'infomercial' that is the beauty of it. If you can bring one position into clear focus when desired, you have everything you need to extend the range of your calculating ability."

- Jon Tisdall, Improve Your Chess Now

Hello everybody,

Welcome to week 9. This week, we revisit the Stepping Stones technique from INVISIBLE CHESS VIII, the concept first discussed by Jon Tisdall in his book Improve Your Chess Now.

Before I get going, though, I just wanted to take a moment to remind you that my podcast INVISIBLE CHESS will be launching for real later this month. Last week I released a second trailer, this one intended specifically for people who have never done blindfold/visualisation work before or who were very new to it. Please do check it out.

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STEPPING STONES

In Week 8 used Tisdall’s Stepping Stones as a method to help us learn and review opening lines. The technique is useful for so much more than that, though.

This week, we'll look at some endgame positions to practice using Stepping Stones to allow us, as Tisdall puts it, to "extend the range of our calculating ability".

Here's a reminder of the Stepping Stones method itself:-

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WEEK NINE EXERCISES

In a real game it’s hard to imagine that anybody would actually calculate to the end from the starting positions … but this is training so that’s exactly what we’re going to try to do.

EXERCISE ONE:

WHITE:

Ke1; Ra3; Rb4

BLACK:

Kg5

EXERCISE TWO:

WHITE:

Ke1; Qd1; Rf4

BLACK:

Ke5

EXERCISE THREE:

The key theoretical point in k&p v k is that White will win if they can get the king two squares in front of a pawn that it's in it's own half of the board.

Using that knowledge, establish if this position is a win or not.

WHITE:

Ke1; e2

BLACK:
Ke8

EXERCISE FOUR:

When the pawn is in the opponent's half of the board, the king only has to be one or two squares in front. So ...

WHITE:

Ke6; e5

BLACK:

Ke8

is winning for White.  Using the stepping stones method, can you reach the starting position of Exercise Four from the starting position of Exercise Three?

Can you then go on to force the queen of the pawn?

EXERCISE FIVE:

Remember the side with the pawn has to get the king two squares in front. So, to draw this position ...

WHITE:

Kc1

BLACK:

Kc8; c7

White has to stop Black getting the king to b5/c5/d5.

Calculate how you do that.

EXERCISE SIX:

Drawn K&p v K positions end up with something like ... 

WHITE:

Kc1

BLACK:

Kc3; c2

... with White to move. So it's stalemate. Using Stepping Stones, reach the end position of Exercise Six from the starting position of Exercise Five.

EXERCISE SEVEN: 

With Queen against pawn on the 7th rank (central or knight's pawn), the winning method is to check the opposing king in front of their pawn and when it's there move you king one square nearer. You then repeat over and over until your king is close enough to force the win of the pawn and then you can mate the lone king.

So it's a long process ... but using Stepping Stones (with practice) it is possible to visualise the whole thing.

WHITE:

Kg8; Qd6

BLACK:

Kf2; g2

White wins - try to visualise the whole process using Stepping Stones.  How far can you get?

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And that’s it for now. Thanks to Martin for another new logo.

Have a good week everybody.